Re-birth: The Beginning after the End - Chapter 117

Chapter 117: A LOVER?

“I should have been there,” she whispered, her voice cracking beneath the weight of guilt and remembered helplessness. “I should have protected you both.”

“No,” both brothers spoke in unison, their hands squeezed hers with the desperate certainty of drowning men grasping lifelines. The gesture carried echoes of childhood comfort, now weighted with darker understanding that made it both more precious and more painful.

Li Hua sat up suddenly, pulling her brothers into her arms with fierce protectiveness. Their familiar warmth against her felt like both blessing and accusation. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered into the space between heartbeats, her words carrying days of unspoken fear and years of love. “I won’t let you ever go through that again. We will stick together. Always.”

Her brothers’ hands settled against her back, their touch gentle as if she were the one who needed comfort. The irony of it made her heart ache.

“Sister,” Li Wei’s tone carried a hint of his old gentle teasing, though shadows still lingered in his voice. “We have to join different sects though. Unless you plan to join every single one?”

“Obviously I plan to join every sect,” Li Hua said, the familiar banter a lifeline in the ocean of darker emotions threatening to drown them. Then, more seriously, “But if I don’t perhaps we could find a way to appear immediately by each other’s side when either of us is in danger?”

Li Hao’s eyes lit up with that familiar spark of determination that even torture hadn’t managed to extinguish. “There has to be a way!”

Li Hua pulled back slowly, her hands rising to frame each brother’s face. She studied them with a soft smile, tracing the familiar contours. The shadows that once lingered were gone, replaced by a lightness that warmed her heart. The weight of their past struggles had lifted slightly.

“Promise me something,” she said, her voice steady despite the emotion threatening to crack it. “No more secrets between us. No more suffering alone.” Her grip on their hands tightened slightly. “If the nightmares come, if the memories surface, if anything troubles you—even the smallest thing—I want to know. I need to know. We face everything together from now on.”

Her brothers exchanged a quiet, knowing nod.

Li Hao suddenly thought of something and began to grin like a cunning fox, the expression transforming his face from trauma-haunted to impish in an instant. The swift change was so familiar, so essentially him, that it made Li Hua’s heart ache with remembered childhood mischief. “Sister,” he drawled, drawing out the word like pulled taffy. “Who was that man who came to save me? A secret admirer? A lover?”

Li Hua’s fingers stilled against her brother’s cheek, the tender moment shattering like dropped porcelain. Heat crept up her neck as Mo Xing’s parting kiss branded her thoughts. “He’s… a friend.” The words sounded weak even to her own ears.

“A friend?” Li Hao’s grin widened impossibly further, his eyes sparkling with the first real joy she’d seen since their reunion. “Sister, friends don’t tear through five layers of temporal distortions like they’re morning mist. Friends don’t battle three spiritual beasts that would make even Martial Phase cultivators tremble.” His voice took on a theatrical tone. “The way he moved through the void – like he was dancing with death itself. And then those two high-ranked cultivators…” He whistled low. “I’ve never seen anyone manipulate space like that. It was as if reality itself bent to his will.” He leaned forward, eyes twinkling. “That’s not the kind of trouble someone goes through for just a friend, sister.”

Li Wei’s eyes widened, a mix of shock and injured pride flashing across his scholarly features. “Three spiritual beasts and two high-ranked cultivators… guarding you?” The words tumbled out with barely contained indignation, his usual measured tone fracturing under the weight of brotherly competition. “Seriously? Why wasn’t I heavily guarded like that?” His voice dropped to something like a whine, traces of their childhood rivalries bleeding through his scholarly veneer. “Did they think I was weak and only needed one person to guard me?”

Laughter danced in Li Hua’s eyes as she watched her brother’s theatrical display of wounded dignity. Even after everything, the familiar rhythm of their teasing felt as natural as breathing. “Do you want to be kidnapped again?” she asked, arching an eyebrow at his dismay. The question carried an edge of sisterly mockery, but underneath lay steel – a silent promise that such a thing would never happen again.

Li Wei coughed lightly, his composure settling back, though his ears remained tellingly pink. “No need,” he muttered, dignity somewhat ruffled but intact.

The shared laughter that followed filled the training room with warmth, wrapping around them like a protective spell. For a moment, the shadows of their recent ordeal seemed to retreat before the light of their unwavering bond.

“Sister…just be careful, ok?” Li Hao said softly, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes. Something more serious entered his expression, a shadow of protective concern that seemed out of place on his usually carefree features. “Whoever he is, he is quite powerful. The way he moved through those distortions…” He trailed off, the memory making him shudder slightly.

Li Hua nodded, the weight of her brother’s warning settling around her shoulders like a familiar cloak. The ghost of Mo Xing’s touch lingered on her hand, a dangerous distraction she couldn’t quite shake.

The siblings finally rose from the training floor, their movements carrying echoes of childhood mischief despite the weight of their earlier confessions. Li Hao immediately bounded toward the kitchen, his energy seemingly inexhaustible as ever, while Li Wei followed at a more measured pace, though his eyes sparkled with the same familiar light. Li Hua trailed behind, a fond smile playing at her lips as she watched her brothers fall so easily back into their old dynamic.

Soon the comforting aroma of rice and spices filled the air. Steam rose from the cooking pots, carrying memories of shared meals and easier times. Li Hua’s hands moved with fluid grace as she prepared their dinner, while her brothers watched in amazement as she manipulated the modern tools with casual familiarity.

They ate quickly but not without joy, their bowls emptying to the soundtrack of Li Hao’s enthusiastic appreciation and Li Wei’s more measured compliments.

“Back to training?” Li Wei asked as they cleared the last dishes, his voice carrying that familiar eagerness that even torture hadn’t managed to dim.

Li Hua nodded, leading them back to the training room. As they settled into their cultivation stances, the air around them began to hum with shared purpose, three distinct energies weaving together like strands in an ancient tapestry.